§ 82 Entry into force

Within the scope of the Pollution Control Act (in Norwegian only), the complete Facilities Regulations enter into force on 1 January 2002. This also applies to existing facilities. This entails that an assessment has to be made of existing facilities to determine whether the facility fulfils the requirements of the regulations. This applies in particular to the requirements in Sections 15, 40, 48, 51, 52, 66 and 69 of the regulations. If the facility does not fulfil the requirements of the regulations, changes shall be made to the facility. If particular reasons so warrant, the Norwegian Environment Agency can grant exemptions from requirements in the regulations. This could, for example, be instances where the costs of making changes substantially exceed the environmental gain. It is not anticipated that the regulations’ requirements regarding taking into account the external environment, will entail major or costly changes to existing facilities. In many of the requirements, provision is made for making a cost-benefit assessment in relation to deciding whether the regulatory requirements are fulfilled or not. This applies to e.g. Section 40.

Sections 4, 5, 6, 10 and 12 state that consideration shall be given to the risk of pollution or environmental risk when selecting materials and when choosing and designing facilities and plants. These provisions will be of significance in the planning and design phase, and when modifying plants and facilities. These sections do not require, however, that changes are made to existing plants and facilities.

This Section No. 2, viewed in context with Section 73 of the Framework Regulations, entails that, in the area of health, working environment and safety, the technical requirements in the regulations that applied until these regulations entered into force, can still be used as a basis for existing facilities, but with the exception of what may be subject to major rebuilding or modifications, cf. this Section No. 4. Regardless of whether the party responsible for an existing facility chooses to apply older technical requirements, the rest of today's HSE regulations will apply fully. The intersection of what is considered as an existing facility, is the time of approval of the PDO. This means that the party responsible can choose to use technical requirements in regulations that applied on and after the time of the PDO approval. The prerequisite for the responsible party to choose to use older technical requirements, is to safeguard the requirement to prudent activities at the same time, cf. Section 10-1 of the Petroleum Act and Section 10 of the Framework Regulations. The requirement of prudent operations expresses a legal standard which implies that the minimum level for what is considered prudent, can evolve over time in accordance with new knowledge, new technological development, perceptions in industry / industry practice and social development in general.

Pursuant to Section 23 of the Framework Regulations, cf. Section 10 of the Framework Regulations, the party responsible shall prepare and retain material and information necessary to ensure and document that the activities are planned and conducted in a prudent manner, and this may be required to be submitted to the authorities. In cases where the party responsible has chosen to apply older technical requirements for a facility, questions may arise over time as to how the technical condition of the facility compares with today's prudent standard, cf. above. When it comes to the assessment of the technical condition of the facility, it will be natural for the responsible party to base this on the assumption that the requirements of today's facilities regulations indicate an acceptable prudent level.

Major rebuilding and modifications as mentioned in this Section No. 4, may be the installation of a new module, major interventions in hydrocarbon-carrying systems or major changes in physical barriers. With regard to the use of new standards in such contexts, see the Framework Regulations Section 24.

Existing facilities as mentioned in this Section, means facilities where the plan for development and operation of petroleum deposits (PDO) has been approved in accordance with Section 4-2 of the Petroleum Act, or where special permission has been given on the basis of plans for installation and operation of facilities for transport and exploitation of petroleum (PIO) in accordance with the Petroleum Act Section 4-3, or facilities where an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) has been issued, or facilities that are comprised by a consent to carry out petroleum activities before these regulations entered into force.

When the holder of an Acknowledgement of Compliance chooses to apply maritime regulations, cf. Section 3 of the Framework Regulations, the entry into force of new provisions will follow the Norwegian Maritime Authority's regulations in the areas in which Section 3 of the Framework Regulations applies. For facilities that are registered in Norway, this normally implies entry into force at the next certificate expiry.

New vessels, as mentioned in this Section No. 5, means units contracted for (build contract signed) after 23 December 2016.

It follows from Section 26 of the Management Regulations that the operator shall provide an overview of previously granted exemptions for mobile facilities in applications for consent. Previously granted exemptions follow the mobile facility. New operators shall, however, evaluate whether it is prudent to operate with the exemptions granted, and whether changed conditions exist that make it necessary to apply for a new exemption, see Section 70 of the Framework Regulations.